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Fiji produced a masterclass to beat Great Britain & make history as the first men’s Olympic champions
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South Africa storm to a 54-14 win over Japan to take the bronze medal
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New Zealand end the tournament in 5th place, with Argentina 6th, France 7th and Australia 8th
Fiji’s Rugby Sevens team claimed their nation’s first ever Olympic medal in any sport on Thursday, beating Great Britain 43-7 in the Final in Rio.
They blew Great Britain completely out of the water in the first half with a consistent onslaught of breathtaking skills and pace.
The flying Fijians ran in five tries in the first half for a commanding, if not match-winning 29-0 lead going into half-time as Osea Kolinisau, Jerry Tuwai, Jasa Veremalua, Leone Nakarawa and Vatemo Ravouvou all crossed the tryline in a superb display of seven rugby.
The second half offered much of the same even though GB managed to score a try through Dan Norton with Marcus Watson adding the subsequent extras.
Meanwhile, South African claimed the bronze medal in the Olympic Games Men’s Rugby Sevens on Thursday after beating Japan 54-14 in their play-off.
Roscko Speckman scored a hat-trick as the Blitzboks scored eight tries to two for an emphatic victory.
Unlike their colleagues in the 15-man code at last year’s World Cup, South Africa proved way too strong for Japan, who were clearly on their last legs having done extremely well to even reach the bronze medal play-off.
Other final results
7th place: France 12-10 Australia – France turned a 0-5 deficit early on into a 12-5 lead thanks to tries from Terry Bouhraoua and Julien Candelon, who stepped two defenders to score what turned out to be the winning try. Bouhraoua added the conversion to seal the win although Ed Jenkins scored a five-pointer for Australia at the death, but the conversion was wide, which ultimately proved costly.
5th place: New Zealand 17-14 Argentina – After a tight first-half in which they took a 5-0 lead, New Zealand ran away with the game in the second, scoring two further tries through Tim Mikkelson and Rieko Ioane to give the All Blacks a commanding 17-0 lead. With less than a minute left on the clock, Argentina scored a consolation try after some superb individual work by Juan Imhoff who created space on the outside before receiving the inside pass and with pace to burn crossed the whitewash for a well-worked try.
